What can we expect for planning in this Coalition Government?

Planning will probably be sucked into the rather nebulous "Big Society" agenda but the main changes are likely to occur in England first as here in Wales we operate under a planning-friendly coalition of our own. Over Offa's Dyke however, changes are anticipated including the removal of the recently established Infrastrcture Planning Commission (applies here in Wales too), the deletion of Regional Development Agencies, the dismantling of the Regional Spatial Strategy system and the targets that go with it (e.g. housing targets), removal of the Community Infrastructure Levy and the possibility of introducing a third-party right of appeal. For planners in the public sector, we can expect pay and recruitment freezes if not pay cuts; within the private sector,Government is committed to slashing its consultancy budgets so a large proportion of those planning and regeneration consultancies that have cropped up during New Labour will go to the wall. Councils will also see the removal of the Planning Delivery Grant altogether.

The "Growth Point" system in England will cease probably in 2010/11 with the probability of uncommitted budgets being recalled under the emergency budget (and most Growth Point areas have uncommitted funds due to the economic downturn).

HCA's capital budget will be reduced from £5bn to £3bn with some £500m cut in this emergency budget and £1.5bn over the next two years. This will impact enormously on the provision of affordable housing. CABE's budget will be cut back from £170m to £100m, resulting in a refocussing to only doing Design Reviews.

We'll probably also see the Use Classes Order reformed to reduce bureaucracy.

By contrast, the Lib-Dems will probably demand meaningful delivery of key targets on CO2, only for the Tories later on to defer to the developers/business as they cry foul that such targets will damage economic recovery!

Good then that we live and work in Wales.... for now.